Page 61 of Love's Ace

Instead, he shook out his shoulders, rustling his wings and sending a few stray feathers to float down over me.

“Shit way to wake someone up, Theo.”

“Hm. I could think of better ways…”

“Fucking gods.” Gethin’s voice cut off the tease forming on my tongue, and he slammed his bedroom door louder than necessary. “If you leave feathers behind in my living room because of some weird foreplay with your monster boyfriend, I’m never helping you again.”

I wasn’t sure if I was more caught up on the word monster or boyfriend.

If I thought about it, I knew it was the latter.

I’d been called a monster before.

“We’re not fucking on your couch, Gethin.” Wren only paused for a second before sitting up and rolling his eyes. “It’s too small.”

My eyes drifted to his chest, to the remnants of flaking brown blood that hadn’t been washed away in the rain—proof I’d tried to kill him last night.

Again.

And somehow it had turned into…

Heat flooded my body, and a low sound caught in the back of my throat. When purple eyes darted toward me, I groanedand threw my arms over my face to hide whatever expression I seemed incapable of controlling.

The silence only lasted for a second before Gethin broke it with a sweet smile as he turned toward the kitchen.

“Why don't you two take a shower while I make breakfast?”

God, he was an asshole.

There was no way for me to properly navigate how I was feeling. We ate and then Gethin followed us back to his little library where we’d been pulling books at random. He seemed to know exactly where to look, and he sat a stack on the table before snatching one from the top and going to the corner of the room. He didn’t say anything about throwing me out last night, or the way I’d snapped.

I didn’t say anything about the way Wren came and sat beside me on the couch, or the way I leaned so my shoulder brushed against his when he did.

It wasn’t flirtation. It wasn’t even sexual.

The contact just felt… good. It made me feel calm, and more in control than I’d ever felt in my life. The burning beneath my skin was a distant memory in this place, with him pressed against me. I felt like it could have been a dream, like my entire shitty life could have been one bad dream that I’d finally woken up from.

It was strange how thatfeelingmade me feellessin control, because I wasn’t used to it. I didn’t trust it.

I didn’t know how easy it would be for Wren to change his mind—for me to suddenly become too much of a monster for him, or for him to realize that I couldn’t be saved—and then take it away from me.

Gethin’s words still echoed in my head. It would be easier for Wren if he killed me.

He’d recover.

He could live without me.

But I was horrified to realize that I wasn’t sure I could go back to living without… whatever the fuck was going on between us.

“I need a second.” I pushed myself to my feet, pressing on Wren’s shoulder when he started to stand. “I’m okay. I won’t wander off.”

His eyes stayed on me as I walked to the door, and I could still feel them boring holes into my back as I stepped outside and shut it behind me.

I didn’t dare walk much further than that—the red string between us trailed back inside, wrapping loops around my heart and threatening to constrict the muscle if I went too far. I knew what it felt like, and I didn’t want to experience it again. I didn’t want to lose even more control than I already had.

I didn’t know if I’d survive it. With my back pressed to the door, I could hear the muffled sound of Wren and Gethin talking, though I couldn’t make out the words. I didn’t want to know this time—I didn’t want to hear if Gethin was trying to convince him to kill me again.

I just wanted to find myself in the center of the tangled mess of red threads and want, need and feathers… a sea of lilac and the smell of berries and warmth.

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